Having followed city spending during 2012, I was pleasantly surprised but somewhat skeptical when City Controller Audrey Jones claimed this year that the city ended 2012 with an operating balance of $8 million.

She credited the city's relative financial health to Mayor Dennis Tyler's cautious practices; claiming that, "The mayor is very careful with spending."

Imagine my surprise when I read in The Star Press that the property tax rate for Muncie city government was being increased a whopping 26.97 percent from $1.52 to $1.93 per $100 of assessed value, in spite of all those "cautious practices" and that "careful spending."

But I had to call "hogwash" when Jones claimed that some of the city's increase might be attributed to unrealistic budgeting and tax rates dating to before Mayor Dennis Tyler took office in January 2012.